Grandpa sat in his favorite wingback chair, scowling at a book. It wasn't just any book. It was full of pictures of little birds, and Grandpa knew almost all of them. Today, however, he wasn't reading. He was just moving the book closer to his eyes, then further away, sighing in frustration.
“Strange things are happening to me,” he mumbled under his mustache. “These little letters are playing hide-and-seek. They’re as tiny as poppy seeds and they’re dancing before my eyes.”
Just then, his granddaughter Eliza ran up to him. She had eyes as curious as a little fox. “Grandpa, why are you sad? Did the little birds fly out of your book?” she asked, peeking over his shoulder.
“Not at all, my dear Eliza,” Grandpa shook his head. “It's just the letters under the pictures... I can't read them. They've shrunk since I was young.”
Eliza thought for a moment. Her eyes lit up. “Wait here! I’ll be right back, I have an idea!” And in a flash of her heels, she was running to Grandpa’s desk. She rummaged through the drawers for a moment and then returned. In her hand, she held something round and shiny.
“Look, Grandpa! Do you remember your old friend?” she said, handing him an elegant object with a handle and a large piece of glass in a metal frame.
“Of course! My old magnifying glass!” Grandpa exclaimed with delight. “I had almost forgotten about it.” He held it to the book and his eyes opened wide. “Aha! This is it! The letters are suddenly as big and fat as bumblebees! I can see them!”
Just then, a thin, cheerful little voice came from the magnifying glass. “I’m glad I can help you again, Grandpa.”
Eliza and Grandpa looked at the magnifying glass in surprise.
“You can talk?” Eliza blurted out.
“Of course,” the thin voice laughed. “My name is Loupe, and my heart is made of a special glass called a lens. I’m not magical, just very clever.”
Grandpa examined the magnifying glass carefully. “And how do you do it, Mrs. Lens, make the letters grow so nicely?”
“It’s simple and amazing at the same time,” Loupe explained enthusiastically. “Notice my shape. I have a sort of round belly in the middle, where I’m thicker. Towards the edges, I’m thinner. This shape is technically called convex.”
Eliza gently ran her finger over the smooth, curved glass. “You’re right, it’s like a little hill in the middle.”
“Exactly!” Loupe agreed. “And now, imagine light. Everything you see, you see thanks to light. Invisible light rays bounce off the letters in the book and travel directly to your eyes. But when they pass through me, through my glass belly, I bend them a little.”
“Bend them?” Grandpa wondered. “Light can be bent?”
“It can! This phenomenon is called the refraction of light. And because I have this special convex shape, I direct all the rays that pass through me in such a way that they appear to be coming from a much larger letter. Basically, I trick your eyes, but in a good way! I help them to see better.”
“That’s fantastic!” Eliza exclaimed. “Can we test it somehow?”
“Certainly!” Loupe said, delighted. “Bring a glass of water and a spoon.”
Eliza ran to the kitchen at once. When she returned, she carefully dipped the spoon into the glass of water. “Wow! Look, Grandpa! The spoon looks like it’s broken!”
“Exactly!” Loupe affirmed. “Water does something similar to me. When light rays pass from the air into the water, they also bend, and that’s why the spoon appears to be in a different place than it actually is. I am just polished so perfectly that I don’t just bend things, but I also magnify them nicely and evenly.”
With a new understanding, Grandpa took the magnifying glass and read the text under the picture of a great tit with a smile. “The great tit is our most common little bird, and in winter, it enjoys feasting on sunflower seeds,” he read aloud, proudly. “Thank you, Loupe. Not only did you help me read, but you also taught me something new about light.”
Eliza borrowed the magnifying glass. “Let me see, I want to try it too!”
First, she looked at her palm. The lines on it looked like deep canyons. Then she pointed the magnifying glass at the leaf of a houseplant. The tiny veins on the leaf looked like roads on a map. She looked at a speck of dust on the table, and it suddenly looked like a small, fuzzy pebble.
“Wow! Everything is completely different up close! So many details!” the little explorer cheered.
“You see,” Loupe spoke up again. “The world is full of little miracles, you just have to know how to look properly. But remember one thing,” she added in a serious tone. “Never look directly at the sun through me. Its rays are so strong that I would intensify them, and it could damage your eyes.”
“We promise,” said Grandpa and Eliza at the same time.
Grandpa set the book aside, hugged his granddaughter, and together they watched as Loupe magnified the pattern on a blanket. The tiny letters were no longer a problem, but the beginning of a new adventure.
“You know what, Eliza?” Grandpa said cheerfully. “Tomorrow, we’ll take our clever friend Loupe out into the yard. I’m curious to see what an ant looks like when it’s as big as your toy car.”
Eliza laughed with excitement. She couldn’t wait to see what other secrets Loupe would help her uncover. What do you think, children, what would you look at up close with a magnifying glass?